Devastated Dawn and James White thought they had bagged themselves a bargain when they bought a BMW 320 M-Sport for £4,400 on the popular auction website — but despite handing over the cash, the motor never arrived.

The seller of the car, which was meant to be shipped into Glasgow from Holland on 18th March, posed as a genuine seller on the site and even sent the couple spoof e-mails from eBay confirming he had 100 per cent positive feedback from previous buyers.

Speaking from the family's Edwinstowe home, Dawn (31) and 26-year-old James said the seller — who posed as an 'Andrew Wright' — had told them he was putting the car up for sale because he had emigrated to Holland and could not use the car there.

"We were a little suspicious at first but after receiving the confirmation e-mails from eBay to say the seller was genuine we did not question him further," Dawn told Chad.

"We were told the car would be shipped into Glasgow and delivered to our house on 18th March at around lunchtime, so we paid the cash into Western Union in two transactions because it was a large amount to pay for the car."

But the couple — who have two children — were left completely empty-handed when the BMW failed to arrive at the White's home and the cash was taken out of the account in two separate withdrawals from two different banks in Holland just days apart.

"When we rang the shipping company to chase up the car they said they did not know anything about the BMW and they had experienced similar incidents in the past with people ringing about cars they had bought on eBay," said Dawn.

"I have contacted the police and eBay about the incident, but they have said there is nothing they can do to get our money back.

"We really gutted because it's such a lot of money to lose and we have been left with nothing while a complete stranger has more than £4,000 of our money that we worked hard to save."

A spokesman for eBay told Chad that the site's users should report a potentially fraudulent email or website immediately to spoof@ebay.co.uk.

She added: "Unfortunately this buyer paid for her item with Western Union, which is banned on eBay.co.uk.

"If a member sees an item listed on eBay.co.uk offering International Money Transfers as a payment option, we advise that the member immediately reports the item to eBay.co.uk.

"eBay advises users to visit eBay.co.uk's Safety Centre where they can find tips and advice on how to protect themselves on eBay.co.uk through information and online tutorials.

"eBay.co.uk also offers tools that protect users against fake emails, such as the eBay Toolbar which comes with Account Guard, a feature that helps protect users eBay account information."

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